Abstract

A study was undertaken to determine the suitability of using UMS Hatchery wastewater as an alternative medium for culturing Spirulina platensis, a blue green algae. The
experiment was held indoor. under laboratory condition. The Spirulina cells were cultured using three types of treatments which were 100% Kosaric medium, 100% wastewater medium and mixed medium (50% v/v wastewater + 50% v/v Kosaric medium). The growth performance was studied during this experiment. The wastewater was analyzed to identify the contents of total nitrogen (mgL-1) and phosphate (mgL-1). The production cost for each treatments were calculated and also compared. Cell dry weight was best in wastewater at 0.2875Â±0.0343 gL-1 but there were no significant different (p>0.05) between 3 culture medium. Total nitrogen concentration (mgL-1) also has no significant different but the highest nitrogen concentration was obtained from the
Kosaric media at 5. I 317Â±O.0288 mgL-1 before inoculation and 4.4870Â±0.0337 mgL-1 at the end of culture period. Phosphate concentration was highest in mixed medium
(wastewater + Kosaric media) at 12.7883Â±0.3863 mgL-1 before inoculation and 8.9613Â±0.1788 mgL-1 at the end of culture period. Wastewater was the cheapest medium to produce at RM3.00 per 1L production and Kosaric was the most expensive medium to produce at RM7.73 per 1L production.